


Dog Park Girl and the Flyboy

by jbn42



Series: Dog Park [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: BB-8 Ships It, Damerey Week, Damerey Week 2019, Dog BB-8, F/M, Meet-Cute, Pets, damereyweek 2019, dog park au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 00:20:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21109595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jbn42/pseuds/jbn42
Summary: Poe has a dog; Rey doesn’t, but the dog park is still her favorite place.





	Dog Park Girl and the Flyboy

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: Wasn’t going to do Damerey Week, but then Day 6 was Pets. So, here we go. And favorite AUs for me includes something else I use here as well. Yes, publishing on Day 7 - sorry!
> 
> Disclaimer per usual – I do not own Star Wars or any aspect of the SW universe; just a fan with an idea. No profit here, just fun for me.

Sitting on a shaded bench at the edge of the dog park, Rey Kenobi watches all of the dogs running and playing with a wistful expression on her face. She knows it’s a little weird to come here without a dog of her own, but she can’t resist.

A ball rolls near her feet, and she looks up to see a beautiful orange and white retriever standing about ten feet away, tail wagging. She grins and throws the ball. The dog tears after it, and she follows him with her eyes before sighing and looking away.

The dog reminds her of the golden retriever mix her godfather had when she first went to live with him almost twenty years ago. She pulls her hoodie tight around herself and checks her phone. Seeing the time, she sighs again, grabs her messenger bag, and leaves.

She vows to herself that she won’t be back tomorrow, but this place has called her like a siren’s song since she first discovered it in September when out for a jog here in the town where she’d just moved to teach and do research after finishing her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering. It’s now October, and she’s alone in this new town, living in a furnished extended-stay hotel right for the time being, as the apartment she’d rented fell through.

She misses having a pet – her last roommates in grad school, Finn Trooper and Rose Tico, had an adorable beagle that she’d been able to lavish with affection, but she’s alone here and feeling it acutely. “Buck up, Kenobi,” she whispers, admonishing herself. “You’ll get through this. Your shithole apartment is temporary.” With a decisive nod, she heads off towards the local state university campus, determined to have a good day.

X X X X X X

Poe Dameron watches the pretty, dog-less woman leave the dog park, wondering what her story is, in that he’s seen her here several times in the last few weeks. After days of trying to watch her in as non-creepy a way as possible, he’d thrown his dog’s ball towards her today, aiming and hitting close to her feet to see how she’d react. He’d been pleasantly surprised to see her pick up the ball with a smile and throw it for Bee. He feels a bump against his leg, and he looks down to see an orange and white face peering up at him, said ball in his mouth.

“Hey, Bee.” He ruffles the hair on the dog’s head and throws the ball, sending Bee chasing after it. The orange and white dog is a unique breed, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, a smallish retriever with boundless energy. His dad has been breeding them for years, small litters every two years or so, a distraction for him since Poe’s mom died of cancer when Poe was 8. Bee was Poe’s coming-home gift when he returned from his last tour of duty as a combat pilot in the Air Force.

Poe rolls his shoulder at the twinge he feels in it. That shoulder was dislocated in a crash three years ago, tearing his rotator cuff and leaving him with diminished strength and range of motion in his right arm, his dominant side. He’s OK with it – he’s now a flight instructor at the Air Force Academy, mainly teaching in the classroom and helping the Cadets in the simulators. He also does some test flights now and then and still flies his mom’s old plane on the weekends.

He’s technically retired from the military, a medical retirement, but the job at the Academy came up. He’d jumped at it. He has a nice little townhouse here in Colorado Springs, and he has his dog. His dad, Kes, lives in Breckenridge in the house Poe grew up in, only two hours away.

Just last weekend, Kes was lamenting the lack of grandchildren, but Poe knows that’s a possibility that’s waning. He’s not getting younger (though he’s only thirty-three), and his social life is woefully quiet these days. He dated a woman from high school through college, getting engaged to her just before his first tour.

Kay, though, really wanted the white picket fence and a husband with a 9-5 job. She found one and informed him of that when he came home after his first tour, tearfully handing back the ring he’d given her just four months prior. He left for his second suddenly single and somewhat resolute that he’d remain that way for a while.

That “while” turned into nine, nearly ten now, years. There have been some casual hookups in that time, but little else. Kay’s betrayal, and he knows that what it was, given that she was married and pregnant when he returned from his second tour, scarred him, he knows.

He looks down as Bee bumps him again. “OK, boy. We’ve got to go.” The dog whines, looking over at the now-empty bench. Poe chuckles and beckons to Bee. “Yeah, she’s pretty, isn’t she, buddy?” The dog whines again, and Poe says, “I’m sure she’ll be back tomorrow. We can come look.” He’s honestly not sure if he’s reassuring himself or the dog.

X X X X X X

The next morning, much cooler than average for October, Rey enters the dog park a little earlier than usual. She has coffee in hand and a ball and a few treats in the kangaroo pocket of her heavy sweatshirt. She has the sweatshirt over a turtleneck, with a scarf around her neck and a hat on her head with two french braids coming out from under it.

She knows she looks cute, and it’s by design. It’s a Saturday, and she fully intends to stay a while to see if the cute guy with the even cuter dog shows up today. Her cousin Ben would tease her mercilessly over this. He loves to give her a hard time, especially with regard to her, his word, “sparse” social life. He’s not wrong, of course. She hasn’t dated anyone seriously since undergrad, and there are a lot of kids and older people in this town, but not as many single people close to her age, twenty-nine.

She settles on her usual bench, crossing one leg under herself and twirling the hiking-booted foot of her free leg. It’s rare for her to do something like this, to really try to catch the eye of a guy. This guy, though, he’s beautiful, and he clearly adores his dog. He’s also been watching her for at least a couple of weeks, but he never approaches, and he tries, rather adorably and ineptly, to seem like he isn’t.

The ball thrown towards her feet yesterday felt a little akin to a little boy bumping a little girl on the playground in order to get her attention. It was highly endearing to her even though the only thing she knows about him is that he has an insanely cute dog named Bee, at least that’s what she heard him call to the dog the other day. That thought reminds her that he also has a nice voice, and then she rolls her eyes at herself.

She shakes her head and digs into her messenger bag for the lecture materials she’s preparing for a seminar the following week. After a while, she gets engrossed in her work and stops stealing glances at the park entrance.

X X X X X X

Approaching the dog park, Poe has to keep a tight grip on Bee’s leash to keep the dog from pulling him over. Once the gate is open, Poe unclips Bee’s leash and watches as his dog streaks into the park. Instead of heading to the other dogs, though, Bee heads for the edge of the enclosed space, straight for a young woman perched on a bench near the fence line. His breath catches when he realizes that it’s the same dog-less woman, and he can’t help but grin at how adorable she looks in her hat with the braids sticking out of it.

His grin fades, though, when Bee barrels up to her and knocks some papers out of her hands, scattering them. He hears an expletive and thinks, “Oh God, that pretty and she’s got a British accent? You are a goner, Dameron.”

He rushes over, noting that Bee is sitting there, docile as can be, as Poe exclaims, “Miss, I’m so sorry!” He collects several of the papers for her, stacking them neatly and handing them to her. “Bee usually doesn’t behave like that.”

“I know.” She grins at him, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “He’s usually chasing his ball while you watch me sit here.”

Poe feels his face heat instantly. “Mierda.” She giggles at that, but she also looks at him intently, waiting to see how he responds beyond saying “shit” in Spanish. He scrubs his hand over his eyes and, peering at her through his fingers says, “I’m so sorry. I promise I’m not a creepy weirdo.”

“It’s OK. You didn’t seem like one. I could actually tell that you were trying not to get caught looking at me. It was cute.” She shrugs.

Something clearly dawns on him, because he brightens up and drops his hand, those insanely pretty eyes widening. “Wait, so how did you notice? Were you watching me? And you think I’m cute?” He gives her a cocky grin.

She feels a blush rise in her cheeks that she hopes he’ll attribute to the chilly morning. She considers denying that she was watching him too, but that would be a lie and she somehow doesn’t want to start out with him by bullshitting. Instead, she puts her hands on her hips and levels what she hopes is an exasperated, cool look at him. “I said it was cute, not that you are cute.”

It’s fairly obvious that her attempt at looking cool and exasperated was an all-around failure when his grin widens and he laughs. But he then drops the cocky demeanor and holds out his hand. “I’m Poe Dameron.”

She sighs and takes it. “Rey Kenobi. It’s nice to meet you, Poe.”

Next to them, Bee snuffles loudly and drops his ball at their feet. He then bumps Poe’s leg and Rey’s leg in turn before sitting and looking at them expectantly. Poe looks down at him. “All right, foul beast.” He picks up the ball and lobs it halfway across the width of the park.

X X X X X X

Rey laughs as Bee tears after the ball, and it’s a sound he realizes he’d be good with hearing with no small amount of frequency. He grins again. “And that’s Bee.”

The look she gives him is surprisingly fond. “I know.”

He nods, continuing to smile. He doesn’t think he’s smiled this much in years. His curiosity about her burns at him, so he says, “No dog of your own?”

Her face falls a little, and she hugs her arms around herself. “No. I want one, but I can’t where I’m living. So, I come here. Now I sound like the weirdo.”

“Not at all.” He is dismayed that he seems to have made her a little sad. “It’s a fun place to just watch the activity.” He looks over and sees that Bee is busy tussling with one of his “friends,” another regular, a golden with 30 pounds on Bee. He motions to the bench. “Do you want to sit? Bee may be a while.”

She nods. “Yeah, that would be nice.” They settle on the bench, him crossing his legs towards her, and her winding her long legs up to sit cross-legged on the bench, turned slightly towards him and closer than he expected, leaving him relieved, feeling like it’s clear that she doesn’t think he’s creepy after all the watching.

After a moment where they both watch Bee, he looks at her, once again taken by how pretty she is, in particular today. He quietly asks, “How did you end up in a place where you can’t have a pet? It seems like you want one.”

She sighs, meeting his eyes. “By accident. I’d rented a place, but the current tenants decided not to leave, and the owner asked if they could break the contract I’d signed. When I found out that the current tenants were family to the owner, I felt bad and said yes. But by then, it was too late – my new job was starting, and I needed a place. So, I’m crashing at the extended-stay suites by my job. I just haven’t had time to find a new place, and rentals are largely taken in the middle of the semester like this, at least the ones near my work, and I don’t have a car. It sucks. It reminds me of my days in Foster care.”

He blinks. He hadn’t expected that much information, and she seems to realize how long she’d talked, because she looks down as a blush colors her cheeks, her hands clasping nervously in her lap. “Sorry. That was a serious overshare. It’s awfully quiet at home, and it’s nice to talk to someone for something other than work.”

Frowning, he shakes his head. “Hey, no need to be embarrassed.” She shrugs but keeps looking down, and he decides to take a slight chance. He reaches over, gently and loosely covering her hands with one of his. “Really Sunshine, it’s fine. Quiet can be deafening when there’s too much of it. Believe me, I know.”

She tenses briefly, and he’s afraid he overstepped. He feels her hands move and starts to pull his back, but she doesn’t let him. Instead, she turns one of her hands over, taking his and entwining her much more slender fingers with his as she looks up and shyly meets his eyes. Through that connection, he can feel her relax. “Sunshine?”

He nods a little. “The days have been brighter since you started showing up here. And yes, I know how cheesy that sounded.” She laughs softly, squeezing his hand, and he feels emboldened enough to ask, “So, where do you work?”

“I’m a new engineering professor at the university.” She motions to the pile of papers Bee disturbed earlier. “I was actually getting my notes together for a seminar next week.”

He perks up. “Which university?” Despite the ease of a moment ago, she looks a little guarded, so he explains, “Sorry, there are just a few, and I’m on staff at one, the Air Force Academy, as a flight instructor.”

She nods. “University of Colorado here in town, but I’m actually giving a presentation to some engineering Cadets next week, that’s the seminar, a panel discussion with some other professors, a couple from your school and me. It’s on how jet engines can react to stress.”

“Seriously?” At her nod, he grins even wider than before. “The world can’t be that small. I actually arranged that panel! It’s for some of my students specifically, but from what I understand, it’s going to be standing room only. A lot of the Cadets are interested, especially after I read them the riot act on some arrogance I saw from them in the simulators. They think they can handle anything. They need to understand that they’re wrong.”

He unconsciously rolls his bad shoulder, wincing, and she cocks her head. Bee reappears, snuffling and dropping the ball in her lap. Without a word, she takes it and throws it with her free hand, Bee shooting off again. After a moment, she softly says, “That sounds like you’re speaking from experience, Flyboy.”

He warms a little at the nickname. “Yeah, I am.” He looks at their clasped hands, marveling that she hasn’t let go yet. “So, are you looking for a specific kind of place?”

She nods. “Yes. Close to campus, takes pets, decently safe.”

He thinks for a moment before grinning again. “I have an idea.” With his free hand, he digs out his phone and speed dials someone. When they pick up a moment later, he says, “Hey Maz, do you still have that apartment over the coffee shop open? And are you OK with a tenant who wants a dog?” He listens, and then he nods. “No, not a student. A professor, actually, a new one at the university.”

Rey gives him a funny look, and he grins as he nods again. “Perfect. Can I bring her by to see it in half an hour or so?” He gives Rey a questioning smile, and she nods. “Great. Thanks, Maz. We’ll see you then. And yes, Bee is coming.”

He ends the call, and Rey lifts an eyebrow. “Maz?”

“Maz Kanata. Old family friend and owner of several coffee shops, Takodana Grounds, in the area. The main one is right off campus at your school, and she manages her chain from there. She also has a vacant, nice and decently large studio apartment above that shop. It even has a washer/dryer of its own, and if you can stand the smell of coffee, it’s a great place. I kind of lived there myself for eighteen months before I bought my townhouse.” He gives her a sheepish smile. “I’ve known Maz since I was a baby, so bonus for you, I’m sure she’ll happily tell you some embarrassing stories about my childhood.”

X X X X X X

Rey can’t believe this. Not only is he gorgeous and apparently kind and sweet, he’s also helping her get out of her hellhole apartment. All she can think of to say is, “I love the smell of coffee. And I’ve been to one of her shops – her lattes are to die for.”

It was apparently the right thing to say, because he grins again. “Let’s get Bee. We walked here, so we’ll have to walk to Maz’s shop.”

He calls Bee as she packs up her things. She finishes as the dog gets to them, waiting as he wrestles the ball from the dog and stuffs it into his pocket. She smiles when he looks up, and he beckons with his head. He puts the leash on Bee, but the dog stands firm and just looks at Rey, whining. As Rey laughs, he takes her bag and hands her Bee’s leash.

At Poe’s direction, they walk quickly down one of the large park’s hiking trails. Bee occasionally takes off, and she runs with him. Every time they circle back to Poe, she’s flattered by the unabashedly admiring expression on his face. The last time before they exit the park, she works up the courage to actually flirt a bit, looking at him through her eyelashes and bumping his good shoulder with hers (she’d noted the wince and roll of his right shoulder earlier), their nearly-equal height making it easy.

Once they arrive at the coffee shop, she realizes that it’s the one she has come to a few times. She’s taken aback a moment later when the barista who’d helped her every time comes out from behind the counter and hugs Poe tight. The tiny woman, 4’10” at the outside, then turns to Rey and puts on a pair of thick glasses. She examines her for a moment before saying, “Large vanilla latte, skim milk, triple shot of espresso, extra hot?” Rey just nods, and the woman sticks her hand out. “Maz Kanata.”

Rey’s eyes widen, but she shakes her hand. “Rey Kenobi.”

“Nice to meet you, Rey Kenobi.” Maz turns to Poe. “You make her walk that beast of yours?”

Poe starts to protest, but Bee barks and Rey adds with a smirk, “Actually, the beast wouldn’t move until I took the leash.”

Maz cackles at that and grins at Poe. “That dog worships you. He seriously likes her more?”

With a shrug, Poe just smiles easily. “Can’t blame him.”

Rey is about to ask to see the apartment when Maz gasps. “Wait, is this Dog Park Girl? The one you have a crush on that you kept talking about when we had dinner with your papa last week? You finally talked to her?”

“Maz!” Poe looks mortified, his cheeks coloring dark red. He looks at Rey. “I’m so sorry. This is Maz. Awesome except when you want to kill her.”

Blinking and more than a little flattered, Rey laughs softly. Maz offers to show her the apartment, and Rey agrees, following her out to a set of stairs through an entrance in the shop. Before she does, though, she stops Poe and quietly admits, “I have a crush on you, too,” boldly pressing a kiss to his cheek and going to catch up with Maz.

X X X X X X

Twenty months later, it’s June, and the winter has finally fully broken. It’s a Saturday and the warmest morning they’ve had since the preceding fall, and Poe is determined to run the dogs out a little to settle them down. Bee zings around the dog park, trailed closely by a one-year-old female Toller, the nickname for Bee’s breed. She’s a little smaller than Bee, and her name is Maggie.

He laughs and shakes his head, looking over and seeing Rey settling on her bench. He goes and joins her, flopping down. She passes him his coffee, a latte like hers, just no vanilla, and she drily observes, “Isn’t this bad luck?”

He chuckles. “That’s what people say. Dad and Finn were apoplectic when I left the house with the dogs this morning, especially after they made me leave you with your godmother and Rose at the hotel last night.” He leans over and kisses her, one hand going into her hair. When he pulls back at the sound of a bark, he has to laugh as two balls bounce against their legs, provided by two impatient-looking Tollers.

She giggles, grabbing them and handing him one. They throw them in unison and settle back down on the bench, her snuggling into his side, cold like she always is. They watch the dogs for a while, but Rey eventually sighs at a ping of a text message on her phone. She peers at it, and he says, “Time’s up?”

She stands up, nodding. “Yes. My godmother and Rose are demanding my presence at the salon to get my hair done.”

He stands too, pulling her close and kissing her again. “See you this afternoon?”

“I don’t know,” she thoughtfully taps her finger against her lips, “I’m kind of tied up this afternoon.”

He grins. “Me too. Nice hotel, great grounds, pretty gazebo for events.”

“Oh, a gazebo?” She smiles, pecking his cheek.

“Yes. It’s pretty nice, covered in flowers. Meet me there around a quarter past four, Sunshine?” He lifts an eyebrow.

“OK, Flyboy. Sounds good.” She steps away. “Now I really do need to go.”

He nods and watches her as she goes. When she’s about twenty feet away, he calls, “Wait, Sunshine, how will I recognize you?”

She laughs and replies, “You won’t be able to miss me. White dress, flowers in my hair, and a big-ass bouquet of orange and white roses, walked in by a tiny woman who smells like coffee.”

He grins again and calls back, “I’m glad you said yes, Sunshine.”

“And I’m glad you came over, Flyboy.” She gives him a wave and a soft smile, and she heads out.

Watching her as she goes, he can’t help but be grateful for having the courage to finally approach her almost two years ago. He’s also oddly grateful to Kay for breaking his heart all those years ago, because he knows now that he just spent those years waiting for Rey. Bee bumps his leg, and Poe reaches down and scritches his ear. “And thanks to you too, boy. Best wing man ever.”

Bee barks in response, and Maggie joins in, grabbing his hoodie and pulling him towards the gate. He laughs, clipping their leashes on. “You two are right. Let’s not keep the lady waiting.”


End file.
